When There is Nothing Left to Burn
by aesirborn
Summary: You have to set yourself on fire. They've met once before, but Loki's not sure where.


**A/N: Old. Originally published on AO3 on June 30th, 2013. Original notes:**

**Title was taken from the opening line of Your Ex-Lover is Dead by Stars. I'd recommend looking them up, amazing writing music!** **I blame this all on Iva. It's her fault. Because she's my friend that writes Tasertricks. I don't write Tasertricks. Does this even count?**

* * *

It's a chance meeting, on an airplane. Loki had planned to succumb with glazed over eyes to his music for six hours, but as an arm jostled his off the arm rest indignantly, he ripped off his head phones to give his most scathing dirty look to the person next to him.

He locked eyes with a pale brunette. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she looked sloppy like all girls on airplanes do, her make up gone for the day and every imperfection and overlarge pore there for all the strangers to see, along with ill fitting sweatpants and a t-shirt.

"What, you want the armrest?" she said indignantly.

"Well, I would have," says Loki.

"Well you've already got that one," she said, "You got the window seat. I've got some of the worst air plane real estate, you can lose an armrest." She had a bored quality in her voice, as if she could really care less about what anyone had to say. Loki rolled his eyes and cranked his chair back as the girl pulled out a book from the old thread worn backpack that was her carry on.

"Lucky you," the girl said, indicating his head phones. "This asshole at a bar stole my iPod last week."

"Ha ha," Loki intoned dryly, picking up his old nano to pause it. "Have I met you before?" he asked.

"I don't think so," said the girl.

"Oh," said Loki. "Your face seems familiar."

"I get around," said the girl.

"Tell me, have you ever met a Thor?" said Loki, picking with the buttons on his shirt as the girl closed her book to get a good look at him.

"Uh, once, I think. My friend Jane dragged me to meet him at some party a couple years ago. They dated for like two months. He was way too stupid for her, kind of like me, in the end."

"My brother Thor dated a Jane for two months," said Loki dryly.

"Oh, uh, sorry," the girl said.

"No, it's fine," said Loki, you're spot on. He's not the sharpest."

"And let me guess, you're a smart little cookie," said the girl in a mocking voice.

"I like to think of myself that way, yes," said Loki.

They both fell quiet as the plane speakers crackled and the head flight attendant began to list emergency exit procedures, as the others mimed the process stationed along the aisles. The process was repeated in badly accented French and Spanish next, and the plane began to move, pulling away from the terminal and beginning to gain speed on the ground.

Loki grimaced as the plane began to lift in the air, feeling like every single organ in his body was being flattened and that he left his stomach somewhere on the pavement below. The girl next to him wasn't reacting well either, she had her eyes trained shut and taut, her book flattened against her stomach at the odd angle as her fingers grasped the arm rests tightly.

"Scared of flying?" Loki mocked.

"Don't be so cocky, you're pale," said the girl, cracking open an eye to look at him.

The man next to the girl on the aisle side looked up from his eReader. "Are you two going to talk this entire flight?" he sighed.

They both fell quiet again, and after a couple of minutes more the plane's flight stabilized, and Loki looked out the window and looked at all the tiny houses below. The city of Manchester, New Hampshire faded into the countryside as they started to fly westward. The houses slowly turned into a conglomerate of farm land and little clusters of buildings that were the tiny historical townships of Vermont.

The girl next to him turned her head on the seat and looked out the window too. Loki turned to stare her in the face, and she scrunched up her eyes and said, "ew."

"What's your name?" Loki asked her. "Mine is Loki."

"Darcy," the girl said. "Were you at that party? I don't remember you."

"I met Jane," said Loki. "Maybe I only saw you in passing."

"I guess," said Darcy. "You don't look much like your brother."

Loki said mildly, "I'm adopted," even though it wasn't a very mild topic at all.

"Oh, me too," said Darcy.

"It's kind of a sore spot," said Loki, and they left it at that.

Darcy opened her book and tried to read, but ended up giving up after a while, looking kind of queasy. Loki felt bad, remembering her stolen iPod situation, and offered her his other earbud, which she took and put in her ear. "Your music is boring," she said after a moment.

"Be quiet, and actually listen to the lyrics," Loki said. A mellow drum beat opened the song, along with a quiet piano trill. Darcy closed her eyes next to him as the singer began to sing softly. Loki closed his eyes after a moment too, letting himself fall into the familiar melody of the song, his fingers tapping the slow beat on his armrest subconsciously.

As the song closed, and another began to fade in, Darcy said, "Okay, it is pretty good after all. Will you write it down for me?"

Loki fished out his own beat down carry on from below the seat ahead of him, pulled out a pen and his notebook. He scribbled down the name of the song and the artist, along with the album title for good measure and ripped it out, handing it to Darcy. "Here," he said, handing it to Darcy.

"You get back on the latest flight to paradise, I found out from the note tape to the door," Darcy said in singsong.

"I thought I saw your airplane in the sky one night, through the window lying on the kitchen floor," Loki replied. He put his notebook back in the bag and closed his eyes to listen to the next song, Darcy following suit.

Loki blinked his eyes open as the next song started and took a good look at Darcy, her head way closer than a stranger on a plane's should be objectively to his, but he wasn't complaining about the view as he tilted his seat back up even to her. She was short, he realized then, with thin small limbs. She had thick, dark eyelashes that contrasted with her skin, pale like his. There were little marks on her nose that suggested she wore glasses, but she seemed to have forgone them that day. Her hair splayed across the seat behind her.

They were both pulled from their stupor as an all to bubbly flight attendant said, "Hi!" Loki blinked and looked at the strawberry blonde, who pointed at their seat compartments and said, "I'll be back around in a moment, if you want anything you should look!"

They both pulled out the menus and Loki paused his iPod for the time being, looking over the choices.

The flight attendant came back around after a few minutes. The man on the aisle order a coffee, and Darcy ordered a Sierra Mist.

"Can I have a Budweiser?" Loki asked.

"I'll need to see some I.D.," said the attendant, handing Darcy her soda can.

Loki pulled out his wallet and handed her his driver's license to inspect, which she handed back after a moment and pulled out a can from her cooler.

Loki put in it the cupholder, but decided not to open it quite yet as he handed the atttendant a few bills. "What?" he asked Darcy, who was staring at him.

"Just kind of wishing I had that idea now," said Darcy.

"Go up and ask," said Loki.

"Nah."

They sat through the rest of the flight, listening through Loki's collection of soft music and drinking their drinks, knocking back jokes and irritated the man next to Darcy. _Who makes friends on plane flights?_ Loki thought incredulously at one point. Somewhere along the way as the midwest turned dark, they exchanged numbers before Darcy fell asleep and Loki was left with his music, his thoughts, and the last few drops of his beer.

Darcy was pretty in sleep though, he thought. He watched the careful rise and fall of her chest, keeping his eyes away from her cleavage hidden by her t-shirt. Most of the time. Her hand was still splayed on the arm rest between them, and her fingers were covered with chips of pink nail polish that maybe one had a design, but maybe didn't. Loki rested his head on the hard interior wall of the plane, and let the slow rumble of the engine lull him to rest for a while too.

* * *

Loki was woken up as the plane hit the runway. He tried to shake the sleep from his eyes, looking out the window to the dark airport runway. He shook Darcy's shoulders, and she started to blink in the bright light of the plane. "Huh?" she said in a cute, sleep addled voice.

"We landed," said Loki.

"Oh, thanks," said Darcy, and she started to gather together all of her belongings from her carry on back into the backpack, Loki doing the same. Darcy pulled her sweat shirt on and put her sneakers back on, having discarded them at some point while they had listened to music earlier.

They waited in comfortable silence to get off the plane, and when it was finally time for economy to all get off, Loki said in the confusion, "I'll text you."

"Yeah," said Darcy, slinging her back pack over her shoulder. "Talk to ya."

She slipped into the aisle, and Loki watched her slowly move up it and away, smiling to himself as he jostled his way into the queue to get off. He watched her dark hair disappear into a bathroom once he got out into the terminal and smiled to himself. She was pretty. It was a shallow term. It worked.

He didn't really have to go to the bathroom, and instead walked to the baggage claim. He staked out his spot and waited for his suitcase to come out and around to him, losing interest at every bag that passed his eyes and wasn't his.

Suddenly a hand was insistently on his shoulder, pulling on it. Loki turned around and was surprised when a pair of lips met his, kissing him. He reciprocated for a moment, losing himself in it, until he opened his eyes and realized his suit case was right there. He grabbed it and stepped away from the girl who had kissed him. Darcy. "Forward," he commented, gripping his suitcase tightly.

"I'm hot, you're hot, I would've pounced you earlier if it weren't for that guy next to me," she said, her hand still gripping his arm. Loki shrugged her off.

"And to think I thought you were a little shy."

"Seems you thought wrong," Darcy said with a grin.

"I have places to be," said Loki. "My brother is going to be waiting for me."

"I do too, but do I care?" said Darcy. "Come on, it might be our only chance." Loki felt conflicted for a moment, but Darcy already had her duffel bag in her other hand and was using her free hand to pull him away. "Come on," she said. "I already have a place rented for while I'm staying here."

Loki closed his eyes and thought, _I'll regret this. _"Fine," he said.

Darcy smiled and let go of his hand, walking away. "I've got condoms in my bag," she said.

"Don't say shit like that so loudly!" Loki said, walking up closer to her.

"Like any of them care," she said with a grin.

Loki felt awkward as they walked outside and Darcy hailed a cab. She gave the cab instructions as they got in the back, and she creeped her hand up to touch his thigh. The cab driver put on loud rock music. Loki kissed her lightly on the lips, which Darcy wrinkled her nose at, but didn't try anything more in the cab.

They arrived quickly at the hotel and pulled their things out of the back, and dragged them inside. Loki felt thoroughly worn out by the day, but not enough to back out now. Darcy walked up to the empty front desk and handed over a few papers, saying, "Lewis?"

The receptionist handed her two room keys, seeing Loki hanging behind, and Loki carried both of their bag to the elevator.

Once they got into the room, the bags were thrown aside as they both kicked out their shoes. Darcy fished out the package of condoms from a side pocket and set them on the night stand of the bed. "Come on now," she said, sitting down on the end of the bed and peeling of her socks. "Don't be shy."

Loki moved over and kissed her, and she took it further, biting his lip lightly as she sneaked her hand under his shirt, which he pulled off quickly.

"You don't do this a lot, do you?" she said, pulling off her own shirt. She kissed him again as Loki snaked his arm behind her back and unsnapped her bra, which she let fall off her arms.

"One night stands, no. And no girlfriends lately, either," he said, after pulling away for breath. He pulled her hair out from her ponytail, tangling his fingers in it and then cupping them around the back of her neck. She pushed him over on top of the bed, kissing him as his fingers found her breasts. He tweaked her nipple, and she gasped.

Loki felt a knot of tension start to form in the back of his head, but he ignored it to roll them over. He licked her collar bone, and started to kiss her neck, as her eyelids fluttered shut.

Suddenly, Loki's phone rang in the pocket of his pants. The moment ruined that quickly, Loki pulled away and grabbed it, taking a moment to compose himself as he saw the called. _Thor Odinson. _His brother's smiling face behind the name, a picture of them both at the planetarium in Concord two years ago.

Loki hit answer, and said, "Hello?"

"Loki!" Thor's voice sounded panicked on the other side. "I've been texting you for half an hour, I've been standing outside that Dunkin' Donuts in the airport for one! They say your flight landed forty five minutes ago! Where the hell are you?"

"Well, there's this thing," said Loki.

Thor interrupted him. "Look, if you didn't want to be found or you wanted to be dramatic as usual, I'd give it up till morning. But mother called me a few minutes ago. Father had a stroke an hour ago. Remember? You were coming to visit them? Where the hell are you, Loki?"

"Shit," said Loki. "Shitshitshit."

"Where are you?" Thor asked insistently over the phone, anger and irritation bleeding into the phone.

"The EconoLodge," said Loki after a moment, glancing at Darcy, who looked thoroughly offended with him. She was putting her bra back on.

"Oh my god. You picked up a girl. On an airplane. I can't fucking believe you."

"Um," Loki said, but there wasn't anything else to say.

"I'll be there in half an hour," said Thor, and then he hung up. Loki looked at Darcy, dropping his phone in his lap.

Loki didn't think it was possible to see someone look as angry as Darcy did, but pissed off was engraved in every cell in her body right now as she gave him a look that just hurted.

"Yeah..." said Loki quietly. "My father is having a medical emergency..."

"Whatever. Get dressed. I dragged you into this," she said.

* * *

They both would occasionally open the contact on their phone over the next button, their finger's would hover over the Send Message button, but neither never did.

Loki stared at the contact one last time one night back home in Manchester. His finger hovered over the Delete Contact button for a moment, before he pressed it with a feeling of finality.

He couldn't be sorry when there was nothing to save.


End file.
